In the mid 1990s, Vince McMahons WWF was being destroyed in the TV ratings by Ted Turners upstart WCW promotion. The tearaway group, forged from the last vestiges of the old NWA, had come along in leaps and bounds as a creative force. Every WCW episode seemed determined to cast the WWF as stodgy, old and turgid - and its talent pool had set out to prove it. With the gauntlet firmly laid down and his very livelihood on the line, Vince McMahon flipped the direction of his company away from wholesome family entertainment and towards sex, scandal and violence. Knowing that his competition wouldnt (and couldnt) follow him down into the depths of aggression, perversion and excessive bloodletting that he was now plumbing, Vinny Mac hit upon a winning strategy. It is a proven approach. Some call it cash from chaos, others call it sex sells, and others still call it controversy creating cash, wrestling fans, however, know it, informally, but aptly, as Attitude. Taking his cue (and a lot of talent) from ECWs restlessly innovative renegade wrestling shows, the WWF embraced a teen audience and, in so doing, destroyed their competition completely and totally reinvigorated the wrestling industry. The stars forged during this time, read like a whos who of todays wrestling elite and most, if not all of them, wrestled in what could broadly be called a hardcore style. The Attitude Era was mainstream hardcore. It was to hardcore wrestling what The Pistols or Nirvana were to punk rock, the just-about-acceptable version of a righteously underground phenomenon.
I am a professional author and lifelong comic books/pro wrestling fan. I also work as a journalist as well as writing comic books (I also draw), screenplays, stage plays, songs and prose fiction.
I don't generally read or reply to comments here on What Culture (too many trolls!), but if you follow my Twitter (@heyquicksilver), I'll talk to you all day long!
If you are interested in reading more of my stuff, you can find it on http://quicksilverstories.weebly.com/ (my personal site, which has other wrestling/comics/pop culture stuff on it).
I also write for FLiCK http://www.flickonline.co.uk/flicktion, which is the best place to read my fiction work.
Oh yeah - I'm about to become a Dad for the first time, so if my stuff seems more sentimental than usual - blame it on that!
Finally, I sincerely appreciate every single read I get. So if you're reading this, thank you, you've made me feel like Shakespeare for a day! (see what I mean?)
Latcho Drom,
- CQ
